Do You See What I See
Does anyone find it the least bit surprising that the general public doesn’t trust the collision industry?
“We Pay Up To $350 per RO for Paint, Period”
What is paint capping? Paint capping is a practice instituted by an insurance company that arbitrarily limits the amount of money they reimburse a repair facility for paint and materials on a specific repair order. To fully understand paint capping, you must first understand how paint and materials are calculated on an estimate. The standard
Charge for What You Do: Replacing a Quarter Panel
What’s a quarter worth these days? No, I’m not asking the value of an American quarter dollar. I’m asking you to consider what you should be charging to replace a quarter panel. Are you charging enough for the amount of work involved in a good quality repair? A lot of shop owners and managers insist
Complete Estimates = Bigger Bucks
Writing more accurate estimates doesn’t require extra man power or costly equipment. Just a little extra time on the part of your estimator will increase shop sales, improve efficiency and boost profits.
Why Won’t They Pay Me
Over the years shop operators have learned to write estimates with strict adherence to estimating guides and P-pages. In our attempts to play by the rules, we’ve written for every task we perform in order to get paid properly. But what do we do when insurance companies simply refuse to pay for what we know
Point – Counterpoint
Are Double Standards OK, Depending Who’s Paying the Bill?
Would I Lie to You
An uneducated consumer is just as likely to make a bad decision as a drunk guy flirting with a statuesque woman who’s got a deep, sexy voice and calls herself Al. But the key to educating consumers is to do it before something bad happens. Trying to explain your estimate after they’ve already questioned it causes distrust – and will likely cost you the job.
Are Double Standards OK, Depending Who’s Paying the Bill?
A double standard [where you write a different estimate if the repair is paid by an insurance company rather than a customer paying out of pocket] creates an image of what this industry is trying to defeat, which is that we’re crooks. I don’t want to present one image to one customer and another image
